Stuck
by oathtaker13
Summary: Jin and Mugen are transformed into demons after Fuu makes a deal to save their lives. The story takes off after the final fight scene in the last episode so if you don't want spoilers, read at your own risk! There will be some elements of Fuugen in later chapters. Ongoing
1. Chapter 1

STUCK

Fuu couldn't see through her tears as she dragged Jin's body down to the beach. All she could hear was the crashing of the waves and the roar of blood pounding against her own ears. Jin and Mugen… they both had been fighting crazy strong guys, but they always were, right? Their opponents were a little tougher than those they usually fought, but they always ended up on top in the end, right..?

So why did they both look like they were going to die?

_Why?_

Fuu gingerly placed Jin next to where Mugen had already collapsed on the beach, his face far paler than usual. She was still weeping as her legs finally gave out beneath her, crumpling from the strain of pulling the heavy man down from the cliff. Blood wouldn't stop pouring out of the wound in Jin's side, and no matter how she pleaded, it kept gushing out, pooling in the sand beneath him. Helpless and bleary eyed, she wailed to the skies, crying out for somebody, _anybody_ to help her bring back her two samurai and make the river of red stop flowing from their cuts. Mugen looked like he'd been torn to shreds. Soot and bits of wood, where a church had collapsed on him, covered his clothes and she made a small choking sound as she saw three angry red cut marks across his cheek, an oozing trail of blood making its' way down his jawline.

What was she supposed to do? What could she do? All she had to bind their wounds was what she was wearing, and even if she were to use it all, it still wouldn't be enough to cover all the gouges.

They were going to die.. Fuu suddenly realized, just like her mother and father had, right in front of her.

Cries of anguish and pain began to pour out of her, and she shook with great heaving sobs, unable to control her body. All alone and helpless to save them, only the waves answered her desperate cries. And yet, as she lay in between the two of them in the sand, footsteps, lilting and deliberate, sounded off the beach rocks and reached Fuu's ears. She jolted to the side a bit, feeling a great roiling chill crawling up her spine. Her mind told her it was Government's samurai, the one the Shogun had sent after the three of them, miraculously alive again aand back to finish his grisly mission. He alone was responsible for the wound in Jins' side… and also her fathers' death. Determined not to let him see her pain and anger, Fuu whirled around to face him, holding a nearby stone at the ready…

But the beach in front of her lay empty.

She lowered her rock slightly, confused, but unfazed. She knew what she heard. Standing up, she started cautiously in the direction of the footsteps. She was only a few paces away when a far closer sound rang out from behind her, back where her two bodyguards lay. It was a high, piercing sort of laugh, one that only comes from the very top of the throat and made all the hairs on Fuu's neck bristle wildly. She flinched and whirled around, rock raised in defence. She almost dropped it in shock when she saw what had made the cry.

Standing between her friends, was a man, or what seemed to be a man, although far taller and slimmer than any man she had ever seen. He was clad in a billowing black haori and matching hakama, tied together haphazardly with an obi the color of dried blood. His movements were unbalanced, and he kept hopping about between the two of them, crouching as if to get a better look at one, then, like a crow, bouncing over excitedly to inspect the other. She couldn't see his face for the thick woolen scarf he had wrapped around it, and only a pair of great wide eyes could be seen glinting gleefully from beneath his matching black sedge hat. Fuu was dumbstruck. She could only stand there glued to the spot and watch this ridiculous creature loom and bounce about over her boys. Only when he planted his bare feet in the sand and let out another high pitched cackle did Fuu jolt from her trance and start towards the man, rock raised once again.

"Hey!" she cried out, "get away from them!" and lobbed the rock in his direction, nearly catching Jin on the side of the head. The strange man stopped his jig and fixed a single gleaming eye on the shaking girl. "Good," she stammered, hoping to appear far braver than she felt, "now go on and leave us alone, they need help, not you dancing around them, freak!" At this the stranger's bony shoulders bounced as if he was laughing as some joke she'd just told, and returned his focus to the men at his feet. Incensed, she called out again, "HEYYY, are you listening? I told you" - as she stooped to pick up another rock- "to leave them"- and straightened to take aim "ALO-"

And couldn't say another word, for as she looked up, the man had disappeared from his place behind Jin and Mugen and had materialized immediately in front of her, one hand cupped over her mouth and the other beneath the nape of her neck.

If it had not been for his hand supporting the back of her, she would have fallen backwards in terror. His hands were uncomfortably dry and held no warmth, yet seemed to possess terrifying strength that Fuu sensed was being restrained. Her pupils dilated in fear, lips parted to choke out a muffled scream, but the hands simply clamped down harder on her neck, bringing her face up to meet with his. From this position she felt his great wide orbs scanning every inch of her, tearing into her shamelessly with their gaze. Her face went red with fury as his eyes rested briefly on her less than developed bosom and seemed to laugh all by themselves, although the man himself was completely silent. This anger seemed to give Fuu the strength she needed to reach for the hand covering her mouth and tear it away, the stranger letting it dangle limply by his side while still keeping the other hand positioned firmly on her nape. His eyes grinned again as he brought Fuu's ear right next to where his mouth was. "I can save them both, you know," he rasped.

Fuu froze. Behind them Mugen let out a pained groan and shifted agonizingly in his position, cradling his obviously broken arm. Fuu panicked slightly, but stared defiantly right back into her oppressor's globular eyes. "What do you mean you can save them?" she hissed, "look at them, they're nearly dead!" Hot angry tears began to stream again as she looked at them and she cursed herself quietly. She was always the one crying. " Even the most skilled doctors in Edo couldn't save them, what makes you think you could?"

To this he released her neck and simply pointed a spindly finger skyward, gesturing for Fuu to look up. As she did, a small white butterfly suddenly came flopping clumsily by. Like a strike of lightning, the black-clad man unsheathed a wicked looking dagger from deep within the copious folds of his haori and sliced the insect in two, making a tiny "snkt" noise where the two objects made contact. Fuu didn't even follow the movement, and she couldn't believe it even if she had. This man had drawn his weapon and replaced it faster than she had ever seen Mugen or Jin do, not to mention hit such a small target without so much as a glance in it's direction. Without bothering for a response, the masked man hopped over to the halved butterfly, giggling with excitement as he picked up the two sides. He shuffled over to her with the poor thing cupped in his hands, bringing it right up to her face. When he opened them, Fuu had to stifle a yelp, as a perfectly whole butterfly darted out from between his clammy fingers and flitted off into the fast approaching twilight.

"That- that's impossible…" she stammered, following it's tiny figure into the sky. She had just seen him cut it in two, and yet she also just saw it fly off.. perfectly whole. Another seismic chill shot it's way up her neck, and she looked back the man, heart racing wildly, as a realization started to surface within her. "You're.. not human, are you?" she said quietly. Even as she said it her mind tried to rationalize otherwise, but her in her heart she already knew the answer. This statement seemed to invigorate the figure and he bounced and skidded excitedly across the beach, churning up little sand waves as he went. Then suddenly he was right before her again, gesturing broadly in the direction of her boys. "_This is your chance" _he thundered suddenly, "_They lie here dying before you and yet you can do nothing."_ A violent wind picked up suddenly, kicking up sand that stung her uncovered legs. " _I can save them,"_ he continued,_ "but a price must be met. Forge a deal with me, and they shall live." _"I don't know!" Fuu wailed over the wind, "what deal?" He was suddenly inches away from her face, eyes roiling with intensity. "_I am the only one who can save them,_" he screeched, "_In exchange for their lives, you must carry with you my memory until the moment your soul parts from your body. THOSE are my terms, there IS no more time, CHOOSE, or damn them to hell_!" He punctuated by reeling back and sending out another banshee cackle.

The winds had reached a feverish pitch now, sending the sand biting into her bare legs angrily, slowly wearing her skin away. Behind the howling figure, she caught sight of her body guards, already half buried in sand, being torn apart by the gale. A sudden image of her covering the rest of them up in a grave raced through her mind like a scream and in this, she found her was _not_ going to be the one to bury her friends if she could help it, no matter _what the cost_.

"Alright!" she shouted, "I'll remember you, now just don't let Mugen and Jin DIE!"

At her last words the howling winds and sand dropped their feverous dance, and the demon, for now she realized that's the only thing he could be, stood before her, stock still with a single gloved hand extended towards her. "_You chose wisely, girl,_" was all he said. His voice had fallen to a low lecherous timbre and something deep within the pit of her stomach churned with unease. But her mind was made up, if indeed he could do what he had done with the butterfly to Jin and Mugen, she would deal with anything else that happened later on, as long as they were alive.

Steeling herself for another contact with his dead, lifeless grip, Fuu clutched her hands in a tiny ball against her chest before grasping the outstretched glove before her. An explosion of sand drowned Fuu's cry of surprise and pain, and swept her along with its' torrent as she clutched her bleeding hand. There had been a long, felt like metal, spike right in the center of his glove, and as she grasped it he gripped her hand tighter, pushing it in. The hole in her hand was bleeding profusely but she couldn't make out any place to shelter herself as sand pelted her from all sides, blurring her vision and suddenly depositing her in front of her now completely buried companions, the sand piling on top of them forming dunes. On the verge of tears again, Fuu cried out to the howling winds "We had a DEAL, so what now, HUH?" To which the wind roared even higher. Then, right next to her ear, came the demons' feral response, whispered through the winds. "_A drop of your blood for each man_~." Her mind was too strained to even question his arcane directions, and instead she crawled blindly up to where she had seen Jin lay. A single tear sprung from her eye as she outstretched her injured palm to squeeze a drop on top of the mound, wincing visibly as it fell, and then crawling over to Mugen to repeat the process. With a weight unnaturally heavy for a droplet, each one made a small crater in the piling sands before sinking like lead in water, burying itself into the sand. For a agonizing split second, nothing happened..

Then, all at once, all the grains of sand swirling about her halted altogether, suspended in the air like bubbles in a frozen pond. Fuu blinked, and shifted her head slightly to get a look around. The second she moved, though, all the sand reacted as one living thing, throwing themselves at the two mounds, which had become twin sinkholes before her. A great rumbling roar shook the earth as the sound of millions upon millions of sand grains rubbing and bumping into each other filled the air. It was sort of whining, high pitched wail, a sound not unlike the demon's laugh. All the airborne sand was being sucked onto the vortexes into the ground and Fuu strained against the current to avoid being sucked down with them. The force was immense, and she fought with all she had, but her legs were already giving out. With one great final roar, the last of the sand buried itself into the pits, filling in the holes with a muffled growl.

Free of the current, Fuu was on her feet immediately, running unsteadily to reach where Jin and Mugen had been. _Had been.._ She gasped as loud as she could with a mouth full of sand and scrambled desperately to the now empty stretch of beach. "They're gone," her mind told her, but she ignored it and began digging up clods, stained a deep red from where they had lay. They couldn't be gone, she begged, after all we've been through, they just couldn't… But they were, and as she continued to dig, the rational side of her brain began to win out and she collapsed, perhaps for the last time, onto the beach. He body heaved and shook with strained ragged gasps. Staring straight up, it appeared to be getting quite late. The sky looked like it had been slapped in the face, and there were strips of orange and red streaking across it, highlighted against the wings of gulls as they glided lazily by. The gurgling of the waves beating against the shore finally reentered her consciousness, making the small girl sigh a shaky sigh and clutch her filthy kimono. Everything sounded so normal. Despite all she had just seen and heard and felt, the rest of the world continued to move on, indifferent to her misery. Had it not been for the stabbing pain that still shot up from the hole in her palm, she would have been happy to believe what she just saw was just a horrible nightmare. She smiled oddly to herself at the thought, and closed her eyes, imagining dreamily her tiny frame jolting out of bed in a sweat, inciting Mugen to laugh at her and call her a scared little brat. Then he would hand her her share of that night's catch, a smoked fish on an improvised spit, and they would all sit around the campfire eating in comfortable silence before Jin would give in and ask her what her dream was about. She would then spend the entire night nearly talking about it, far after both men had fallen asleep, just relieved that it was over and they could go on just as they had, cutting out a weary existence, but a happy one, traveling all about Edo with only each other to worry about. A bitter twilight breeze brought Fuu out of her dream and back into reality, all lingering curls of warmth from her fantasy fire chased away.

She looked again to the sky and was shocked to see some early stars poking through the curtain of nightfall, winking coldly down at her. How long had she been out? Fuu sat up, much to her cramped back's objection, and looked around. Dull pangs of despair tinted the edges of her vision as she realized she was still alone, and once again on her own. Hunched in a shivering ball, Fuu had no tears left to cry. A numbness was all that was left after all she had seen, so she stood up, wobbling a bit, and started to walk away, hoping perhaps her sandals weren't buried completely in sand. The question she was trying to distract herself from kept popping up though, the question, "What now?" She had no one else to go to, no family to take her in or friends left livi- she shook her head before she had the chance to finish that thought, fearing her stability if she thought about it any further. The tea shop keeper and his wife had always been nice to her, maybe she would go back to the town where she had started out and try to find them again. Judging by the looks of the sky, she had about another half hour or so of light left, so for tonight she would try and find shelter at that old man's house where her father… passed. Fuu didn't know if she would be able to sleep in the same room, knowing that was where he had been murdered, but the increasing chill in the air kept her feet moving. Had she not paused for a moment to investigate a rock that kind of looked like one of her sandals, she would have missed the soft hiss of sand that came from behind her. Unable to feel anything but a dull type of wondering, Fuu looked over her shoulder in the direction of the sound. Although it was assuredly the shadows playing with her sight, she saw two lumps of sand rising from the turf a little ways off. That can't be right, she thought numbly, perhaps some sea turtles got caught up in the storm trying to get back out to sea. I've never seen sea turtles up close before, so I might as well go see them now, her head told her. Her weary legs strode stiffly over to the shifting mounds, shaking slightly as she stooped to try and uncover the larger one, extending her uninjured hand to brush away the dirt.

A hand shot like lightning from the mound and clamped onto her wrist like a vise, holding her in place as a blood curdling scream she didn't know she could manage anymore ripped from her throat. She tugged at it furiously but the hand was anchored to something still within the sand. She dug her heels in and pulled harder, slowly bringing up with it an arm, then a shoulder from the ground below. A small blossom of hope sprang up involuntarily in her chest, but she pushed it down. It was a fisherman, she told herself, that had been caught up in the sandstorm. She was going to pull him out and he would thank her and be on his way, leaving her again in solitude. But no, "_look," _her heart whispered, "_look again." _Breathing heavily from the adrenaline, Fuu stopped struggling and paused, lifting up her arm to closer inspect the tanned hand that held her. She stared at the whitened knuckles, taking in the scars that criss-crossed the expanse of them, moved carefully on down to the top of the hand, and then the wrist, where her heart stopped cold. She strained her eyes incredulously at what she thought were two bracelets, but were in fact two blue loops circling the wrist and forearm. She allowed her injured hands' fingers to ghost over the surface of the lines, meeting nothing but soft skin. _Tattoos, _she realized, _blue ringed tattoos around the wrists. _In this whole world she only knew one man who had tattoos like that, and he was dead, or so she thought…

For a dead man, Mugen had one hell of a grip.

Laughing blearily at the insanity of it all, she gingerly gripped his wrist with her wounded palm and pulled as hard as she dared. Sure enough, from the mound came the frayed edges of his grey shirt, his tanned neck, and then finally, his head, still partially covered with sand. His eyes were shut but as Fuu let him down gently back onto the ground, his face screwed up in a grimace and he coughed violently, spewing sand and dirt that had filled his lungs only a few hours ago. She could have cried right then and there if not for the sand pile next to her bucking and throwing off sand, reminding Fuu that if Mugen was here, so might Jin. Exclaiming in excitement, Fuu crawled over to Jin's mound, getting the reddened sand caught in the inside of her butterfly sleeves. Handfuls of sand and dirt went flying as she dug with renewed energy, praying with all her might for what she might find beneath, and, in that instant, God heard her, for suddenly her nails made contact with something solid and warm. She was crying again as she swiped the sand off Jin's chest and sides, making him jerk slightly beneath her touch. Scooping an arm beneath his back, she managed to pull him midway out of his shallow grave. Unable to control herself, she held him close to her, despite him being over a head above her, and listened to beautiful steady thump of his heart beating against his chest, spreading heat and life throughout the friend she thought she had lost. A great heaviness she hadn't realized she'd had, lifted off her then, and all the emotions that were frozen by grief began to thaw, seeping out of her in great heaving sobs of joy and relief. The nightmare was over and she had her friends back. Jin stirred in her embrace and awoke with a jolt, gasping and coughing for a moment, then looking down at the shaking girl beneath him wrapped around his bare chest. The last thing he remembered before passing out was stabbing that Kagetoki man, fatally wounding him at the cost of his own life… Something didn't make sense, he should be dead right now, and yet he was living enough to feel the cold night wind splaying across his bare back. Jin shivered a bit. Snapping out of her own embrace, she released him, blushing slightly but still smiling. "Fuu," Jin murmured, "what is going on?" There was a pause, and the brunette looked away for a moment, rubbing her hand soberly before looking at him again, smiling. "Does it matter?" she said, " you guys are alive and that samurai you fought is history." Jin closed his eyes, "Mmm, I see.. and what of your samurai, the one who smelled of sunflowers?" At this Fuu bowed her head slightly and shook it, whispering into her kimono, "He didn't make it." From out of nowhere, a giant crack of thunder splintered across the sky and Mugen jolted out from beneath the sand, freeing his legs and torso which had been previously buried. "What the hell, Fuu, we almost meet our fuckin' maker and you go and bury us on the beach? Where the hell is that wheel chaired bastard, I'm gonna slice his ugly mug right off," he declared, reaching behind him for his sword. To Fuu's surprise, his hand found the hilt and he drew it, slashing the air where his prospective victim was to be enthusiastically. Confused, Fuu mentally went back to when she had first dragged Jin down to the beach. Mugen was lying on his back with his sword lodged deep into the sand a few meters away, so how did it end up back in it's hilt? She sat there and watched him, bewildered until there came another flash of lightning. It was such a booming thunder that even Jin looked up to the skies in alarm. Far off out to sea, they could hear the approaching curtain of rain threatening to soak them all if they didn't find shelter soon. The three looked at each other in the pitch darkness, and agreed instantly that the beach was definitely not the place to be caught up in a storm. So, with the help of Fuu and Mugen, Jin was freed from his sandy prison and the trio started to make their way up the beach path that hopefully lead towards the old man's hut, where they would to take refuge for the night. Fuu lagged behind a bit, hoping secretly that never ended up finding the house. She didn't want to see the aftermath of the shogun samurai's work.

They wandered blindly along an adjoining path they had found in a flash of lightning for a few minutes before it started to pour. Mugen cussed out the sky angrily as their trail very quickly became a river of mud. Fuu could tell Jin was scowling miserably in the dark but she couldn't help but laugh out loud, knowing that things would soon go back to normal and they were on their way again. The path led uphill for another few minutes or so before opening up to reveal the far off shore to their right, and the forest at their back. Completely drenched and exhausted, the trio paused for a moment to wait for the next flash of light to gather their bearings. When it came, it illuminated what looked like a fisherman's cabin situated snugly in between twin giant camphor trees next to the trail up ahead. Relieved to be getting out of the rain, Fuu and Mugen made a scramble for the door. When they reached it, Mugen wasted no time even bothering with the lock, a thick leather strap cordoned to the handle, and ripped the whole assembly off the door itself. "Honestly Mugen, you couldn't just cut the lock?" Fuu sighed. In the dark she thought she saw him grin. "Not my style," he replied, and they all crammed inside, grateful to escape the downpour. The stench of fish in varying stages of decomposition was the first thing they became aware of, but the shack was dryer than it was smelly, and its' stink dissipated a bit with the door let open. Wooden shelves mounted high on the walls held a messy assortment of hooks and weights, as well as thick rings of twine and rope, presumably for repairing fishing lines. Jin opened up a wooden chest near the back of the shed and pulled out a finely woven net that would serve nicely as bedding for the night. He even found a small blanket stored beneath the chest for Fuu. Mugen took the nets and cleared away debris from the middle of the room, kicking it industriously out the door. Plopping the rougher nets and ropes in a large circle, he fashioned a sort of nest, building it up with those first and then laying out the finer nets on top like a birds' down. They could barely see it in the dark. It looked wide enough for all three of them, but just barely. Fuu squinted and her eyes widened, "Wow, Mugen, this actually looks great," she marveled, "it's like you've done this before."

"Just get in girlie, I'm beat," was all he said, and collapsed onto one side of the makeshift nest, issuing a gruff "oomf" before beginning to snore almost instantly.

"He really has no self-control," Jin sighed, and took the side farthest from the vagrant, settling himself in. Fuu stood in front of the nest for a moment, wondering bemusedly at the two. They were so completely different, yet so alike. One was quiet and refined, and carried himself like an emperor, while the other was wild and vulgar, but they both made the same soft tired noises as they settled down into the bedding, exhausted no doubt from the ordeal they had just lived through. Her thoughts ran back briefly to when she had first met them both at the tea shop one evening, and she marveled at how much since then they had grown. Once a divided bickering group of strangers traveling on the same path, they had grown to look out for each other and behave as one unit. She smiled to herself in the dark and sighed. Finally, after she was sure they both were deep in sleep, she slid herself in the space between them, pulling the blanket Jin had given her appreciatively around her soaked shoulders. It was silent in this space, save the steady drumming of the rain against the roof and soft constant breathing in and out of her two bodyguards. She couldn't help the happy tear that escaped the corner of her eye as she took in the warmth radiating from both their backs, despite their attempted distance. She closed her her tired lids at last, and readjusted a stray rope from beneath her side, causing Mugen to stir in his sleep beside her. Rolling over, she unconsciously snuggled up to Jin's broad back and let his warmth lull her in, finally joining them in a deep well deserved sleep.

That night her dreams were filled with darkened skies, the sun blotted out as it was by great clouds of sand that filled the air. They flowed on their own like migrating birds, humming and whirring as one when they streaked by her unshielded ears. She was a little girl again and despite the clouds she could see her father and mother up a little further on the beach, walking slowly with their backs turned to her. A sunflower in hand, she ran after them, wanting to bury herself in her dad's flowing gi and escape the biting storm. But as she ran after them, the swirling sand obscured their forms, distorting them until they were one giant blur. She stopped and clutched her flimsy dress, confused and hating the way the grains bit into her face and legs and made them sting. All she wanted was to be safe again in her parents arms. Calling out to them, all she got in response was a mouthful of sand. Spitting it out, she took up running again while wiping her eyes, crying a bit as little children do. Looking up, it seemed that they were suddenly a lot closer than they had been, and she hurried towards them, happy to be sheltered beneath their arms at last. Her voice reached its' mark this time, making the blurred mass pause from its' pace and turn towards the shivering girl. The sand obscured much of what she saw but as Fuu neared the figure she stopped dead in her tracks. Before her were not her parents, indeed not even two people, but rather a single massive figure with billowing black sleeves and a blood red sash. The demon raised a single clawed finger to his scarf and pulled it down past his chin, revealing the same manic, fanged grin she had heard in his voice and seen in his eyes only a few hours before. An older Fuu stood stock still in the sand, dunes piling up over her feet and rendering her immobile, but it was likely even without it she wouldn't have been able to move, so paralyzing was her fear. His presence was as suffocating as the storm that whipped around her. She couldn't speak or even raise a hand to guard herself against him as he neared her face, his breath too hot on her cheek. "_Be sure to give my sincerest thanks to Mugen and Jin, will you dear?" _he leered, "_as well as an apology for the… extra features, *hehehe* they're just a little something extra to remember me by." _Being so close, Fuu saw in terrible detail the rows of inhumanly sharp teeth, canines peeking out over the chapped curve of his lips. She wanted to call for help but she felt like a deer cornered in the forest, a wolves' glittering fangs the last thing she saw before they closed down over her neck.

~End of chapter One~


	2. chapter 2: Discovery

The world was a black ocean as she surfaced from the grips of her nightmare, her eyes shooting open as she jolted awake. The sound of her panicked breathing filled the tiny cabin while she waited for her vision to come back into focus, concentrating slowly on the the little motes of dust that floated around her, highlighted by a shaft of morning light that ad squeezed its' way through a crack in the wall.

"It was a dream," she murmured, "it was actually a dream." Out came a deep sigh and she turned over to clutch her blanket tighter, memories replying unbidden the events of last night and the deal she had supposedly made. What even was the deal? All she knew was that the demon had brought her two samurais back from deaths' edge and only asked for her to remember him in return. So what did it mean? She was certain that she couldn't ever forget a freak like that, so there had to be a catch. Another sigh, but no answer came to her. He was far gone by now, so there would be no way to know whether or not she actually did remember him. He had dissipated into the sand after he impaled her with that stupid glove. As if waiting for her to remember it, the hole in her hand started to throb again and she winced at the acuity of the pain. That day they would have to find a town to gather fresh bandages and- "OOOOOAHHHHHHHH" Her train of thought disappeared completely as unearthly bellow came from just outside the shack, jolting both Jin and Fuu out of their comfortable positions in their nest of nets. Jin was already on his feet with his hand going for the hilt of his sword.

Fuu stared at them for a moment in confusion, though, as she was quite sure she'd left them on the cliff where she had found Jin, collapsed in a pool of his own blood, but there wasn't time to wonder about that now, because before they could investigate the noise, their unknown assailant streaked into the shack himself and grabbed Jin by the lapels of his gi quicker than he had time to draw his blade. Fuu screamed anew and tried to grab his sleeve, but he was out of reach before she knew what was going on and was launched out of the room. The frail wooden door slammed shut behind him and Fuu was alone in the shack.

Terrified, she started to attempt to free herself from the blankets and nets, but the more she squirmed, the more the nets seemed to wrap themselves around her feet. Outside she could hear angry shouting and muffled feet moving rapidly around in the dirt. Where the hell was Mugen? she thought wildly, and for the first time that morning she realized he hadn't been with them when she woke up. "This is bad," she thought, "if whoever it was that had already taken Mugen, now had Jin, I'm going to stand a chance against person who'd captured them both." Freeing herself at last from the nets she started towards the door, unnerved at how in the last few moments it had gotten entirely silent. With a pounding heart she reached for the door handle, afraid of what lay beyond it.

Her hand had only just touched it when the door jerked open on it's own, spraying her with sunlight and temporarily blinding her as two hands shot from outside and grabbed her kimono, literally hoisting her into the air. Screaming, she fought blindly at the hands, beating her tiny fist against the chest of her captor. Mugen rolled his eyes at this and caught her hand mid-swing, enveloping it in his own massive paw. She still had her eyes screwed shut and pulled against his grip. "HEY," Mugen shouted, "You gonna tell us what the fuck actually happened to us last night?" At his voice, she stopped fighting and opened her eyes a bit, squinting up at the vagrant whose hands were still curled around the front of her shirt. "What do you mean what happened? and *mmff* "LET _GO!" _she spat out, pushing herself away at last.

He released his hand and back away from her slightly, still bristling but breathing heavily. She glared back at him, ready to yell at him fully for dragging her out of the shed so forcefully, but the angry words swallowed themselves in her throat as her eyes finally adjusted to the bright light, and she got her first clear look at her wild man since yesterday evening. He stood unevenly in his place before her, his head bent to one side and wheezing slightly, but that's not what made her cheeks drain of all their color. On his forehead had sprouted four tiny little _horns_, like what you would see on a festival mask in the spring. They were colored the same shade as his skin, and jutted out from his head right above his eyebrows. He gazed at her silently, allowing her to realize what she was seeing. "This can't be," she whispered, sitting down suddenly in the dirt. He took a step towards her but she screamed again, stopping him in his tracks. "Fuu" he said after a long pause, "What… _happened _to us last night? How come I'm like this, and why the hell are _THESE _here?" He jabbed a thumb up to his forehead, inadvertently bringing attention to his hand. Fuu could only stare as he lowered his fist, slowly unclenching it to reveal his nails had elongated and hardened into where they looked more like claws than fingers. She covered her mouth and shook her head, choking into her palm. "I.. I can't get them off.." he mumbled. He stepped towards her again and she could see scratch marks from where he'd tried.

Bushes rustled a bit behind her and out stepped Jin. His body posture was relaxed but his eyes were fuming. "Fuu, neither Mugen nor I remember anything past finishing our individual fights with our enemies last night, so assuming you were awake and present for the entire ordeal, you must tell us what happened." Fuu had heard his words, but could only gawk at him. He apparently had found another string to bind up his hair, because as he spoke he turned his head to the side to look at Mugen, his ponytail showcasing ears that curved abnormally long and came to a point behind him, giving the black haired man a sharp elfish appearance. "You too, Jin?" Fuu cried. He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "Yes, Fuu, we both seem to have been changed somehow, although you seem unaffected." His eyes scanned her face and head for any abnormalities but found none. Her features made no effort whatsoever to conceal her fear and guilt, and it washed over her in waves.

"Fuu, you must tell us," he prodded softly "You were the only one there with us last night, am I right?" At this she drew her knees up against her chest and gave a tiny nod. Before she started to explain that night though, there was one thing she was curious about. "Is that all.. y'know.. that's changed?" she murmured, remembering the demon in her dream and the pointed teeth that had seemed to sink into her neck. Mugen grimaced at this and wordlessly reached behind Jin, grabbing what looked like a long silky black rope, but Jin jerked as he yanked it and let out a hiss, so she began to wonder. She stood up slowly and walked towards them, bare feet crunching the dead leaves as she went. Jin jerked the rope out of Mugens' hand and held it out to her gingerly. She inhaled sharply, for it was warm and twitched slightly in her hand, but as she stroked the fine fur that covered it, she marveled at it's softness, so silky to the touch and jet black, a shade that matched Jins' hair exactly. It occurred to her then just exactly what she was holding. She dropped Jins' tail and cupped her face in her hands, unable to speak. His tail remained where she held it for a moment, flicking back and forth like a cats' before returning to where it was hidden behind his hakama. Jin gave her a long look and grabbed Mugens' shoulder. "I'm not the only one," he said and spun Mugen around to reveal a shorter, skinnier version peeking out just above the lip of his shorts and extending to nearly the end of his ankle where it tapered like a monkeys'. Now that she saw it, it looked a lot like the rope she had felt pinned beneath her back last night, the one she had disturbed Mugen with when she had moved it. She turned a brighter shade of pink as she connected the dots as to why Mugen had reacted. He just gave an impatient sigh and turned towards her and hiked up his shorts as far as his new limb would allow. She could still see it though, poking out from beneath the cut-offs. It wrapped around his knee suddenly and Mugen looked away. "I still haven't gotten the hang of it…" He mumbled.

Jin decided it was time to get back on track. "So Fuu, do you _know _what happened to us? Why we're like this?" He had tried to be patient with her, but having himself stared at in such an obvious way was making him uncomfortable, and he wanted answers. She looked at him dead in the eyes this time. "You guys were dying," she stated simply. Silence..

She sat down again in the dirt and this time the two samurai followed suit, readjusting themselves now to account for their new additions. "I.. saw that Kagetoki guy fall after stabbing you, and then.. well you fell too, Jin.." all she got from him was a nod of confirmation. He remembered that much. "and then what?" Mugen barked. She looked over to him. "I heard this loud explosion where you were fighting but couldn't see you for all the smoke, then you both passed out and I dragged Jin down to the beach to where you were.." "I thought you guys were gone," she mumbled, burying her head in her knees. From there she recounted shakily how the stranger had appeared to her and made all the sand fly around and bury the two of them, pressuring her into make the deal that would save their lives. Jins' face was unreadable as she recounted the details, but Mugen had no such restraint.

"So what the hell did this sandy bastard want with us?" he fumed

"Yes, and what exactly did he mean by "remember me?"

The petit girl had no answers for them. "I don't know," she said, "maybe he just wants us literally to-" and she trailed off, watching, mesmerised by Jins' tail flicking back and forth, apparently unbeknownst to him. He's like Pochiro back at home, she thought bemusedly, remembering a stray tomcat she had adopted when she had first started up at the tea shop. She used to sneak him dumplings on her way in and out of the kitchen, but he hunted mice anyway, cornering them in a back room and staring them down until he was ready to pounce. His tail twitched and bounced like that too, although she doubted either of them could do anything about it.

Thinking about the past reminded her of what she had seen the previous night in her dream."That's IT!" she said out loud, startling the two ronin and causing Momo for the first time to peek it's little head from beneath the folds of her dress, "He wanted us to remember him for some reason so he changed you guys into something you could never forget.. Demons!" This earned her an angry string of cuss words from Mugen but Jin sat silent, contemplating her words. "Do you really believe the man who appeared to you was a demon? Could he not have simply been a healer or mystic of some sort?" Fuu shook her head. "You guys were two minutes from crossing the river styx, I don't think you'd be perfectly fine if he was. Look, you guys obviously aren't human yourselves now and he sure as hell wasn't in the first place, so isn't this kinda like leaving your mark on an enemy so they never forget who beat them?" Mugens' hand unconsciously drifted up to ghost over the three trenches on the side of his cheek. Jin echoed his movement with the scar on his side. "I don't know how he did it, but he made you this way so you would look like him, so you would never forget" she concluded.

Silence again..

"So what now, we just live like this for the rest of our lives?" Mugen scratched the back of his head, a scowl crawling across his face. He envisioning himself walking through town with a crowd of little kids trailing behind him, laughing at him and pulling at his tail, or even worse, the girls standing at their doorways, giggling into their sleeves, whispering something about compensating. A sudden realization hit him and he clawed the ground where he sat.

"_How am I ever going to get laid again_?" he shouted.

Rolling onto his back, he continued to lament, earning no sympathy from his traveling companions. "Anyway, we should find this demon you met and get him to lift this curse," Jin continued, "did he tell you his name?" Again Fuu shook her head dejectedly, "I didn't even see his face, he wore this big black scarf around his head and"- an image of him towering over her suddenly flashed through her mind- "Oh but he was tall!" she exclaimed, "inhumanly tall and dressed in all black."

"Hmm.." was all the black haired samurai offered. It was a moment or two of silence when an odd squirming noise issued from Fuu's belly, a sad and sort of dejected moan. It was then that she realized it was almost an entire day now that she hadn't eaten anything, and her neglected stomach cried out against the abuse. Clutching herself around the waist, Fuu knew they couldn't stay isolated forever. She got up from the dirt and wobbled back over to the shed. Her two escorts sat in mild bewilderment as they listened to her rummaging around in the shed, dropping things and thumping around clumsily. She re-emerged with an armful of ropes and different colored rags, dumping them in a pile before the two.

"Hm?" mugen grumbled, "what's this?"

"Supplies," she said, "if you guys are gonna go out in public then you're gonna have to try and at least look human."

She picked up a red dyed rag, (or was it fish blood?) and handed it to Mugen. "Here, take this and wrap it around your head, that should cover your ears and horns." He stared at it for a second, then at her, then at Jin, who nodded in agreement, before snatching it out of her hands and tying it roughly hachimaki style around his forehead. It did cover his ears, but the outlines of his horns still poked out slightly from his forehead, making the bandana protrude slightly. Still, he looked more like his old self than he had. Mugen glared at both of them, daring them to say something he'd make sure they'd regret. Fuu only smiled and began to hand Jin a similar rag for his ears, but he held up a hand. He got up and walked over to a patch of tall grass and pulled out a half-completed sedge hat he'd been working on up from the ground. "I'll wear this if you don't mind" he stated. "Do what you want," she shrugged, and picked up a rope."You guys are gonna have to hide your tails too, though."

At this Jin smirked slightly and undid his obi. His hakama dropped low and as Fuu watched, Jin opened up the top part of his robe, revealing his sculpted chest and ragged undergarments. "Oh jeez, Jin, what are you doing?" She said, trying to hide her stare and blush between folded fingers, but as she continued to watch, Jin closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. Sure enough his tail appeared from behind him and neatly coiled itself around his waist, Jin smugly rewrapping his gi over it. Mugen glared at him "showoff bastard," he muttered, and turned his attention to his own issue, which was currently trying to snake it's way up his red haori.

Screwing his eyes shut, he shut out everyone else and concentrated on the new consciousness extending behind him. It was unnerving.. he could feel everything on his tail, the muscles holding it upright, the wind moving against his fur, even his leg when it brushed up against it. A ripple went through it and went rigid, sticking out behind Mugen like a pin. Fuu snorted and clapped a bit.

"Wow Mugen that was impressive, maybe you can offer it to old ladies trying to cross a road."

"Be sure to steer clear of rocking chairs," Jin advised and the two of them broke into laughter that only made the wild man focus even harder.

"You… dumb… *hnng* broad," he spat through his fangs, "I'll show you." Zeroing in on muscles he'd never used before, Mugen focused harder than he ever had, assuming a horse stance in the middle of the muddy road. Straining, a bead of sweat began to roll down his brow.

"Mugen if you need to relieve yourself, the woods are right behind you," Fuu giggled from behind her hand, but her jeer didn't even reach him. "_Move," _his mind commanded, and it did. It was one of the oddest sensations Mugen had ever felt, but his tail yielded at last and shoved its' way beneath Mugens' shirt, wrapping itself around his torso until the tip popped out the front of his collar. Opening his mouth to gloat, he turned towards the two watching, but he couldn't seem to find the words to do it, because the coils of his tail suddenly tightened around him with an anaconda like grip, forcing all the air out of his lungs. He wheezed and collapsed to his knees, reaching one hand underneath his shirt to pull it off, and using the other to ward off his friends.

"Hey, are you alright?" Fuu yelped, navigating past his arm and pulling at his tail in vain."Damn, how strong is this thing?" she exclaimed, yanking at it until it dropped off his chest and hung limp at his side. Mugen took a deep gasp of air and stood again, pushing away the pink waitress and closing his eyes. He didn't need help, least of all from a little girl, and he be damned if he was going to accept it now. He gritted his teeth and lifted his shirt above his chest once more, breathing in deeply. Much to everyone's surprise, this time his tail complied without a fight, and instead it rose slowly from where it drooped and wrapped itself neatly beneath his chest. His eyes snapped open and a wide grin stretched across his face, wrinkling the scars on the side of his cheek as he gazed triumphantly at his companions. "There, y'see? Nothing to it," he gloated. Fuu rolled her eyes and turned back to the pile of ropes she had prepared for the two of them.

He's just too stubborn for his own good, she thought, collecting them in her arms. She shuffled over to the shed and began replacing the items, putting them neatly away and returning the net they had slept on back into the chest Jin found. Before leaving for the last time, she turned into the door and clapped her hands shut. "Thank you for the shelter and have better luck fishing in the future," she proclaimed to the absent fisherman. Then, the door was shut, admittedly without the door handle Mugen had ripped off, and the three were on their way.

Finally on the road, Mugen stretched out as he walked, exposing wicked looking fangs that glinted in the morning sun as he yawned. Fuu tried not to stare but she couldn't help but be reminded of the demon in her dream, and she shuddered a bit as she remembered those same teeth ripping into her neck just before she awoke. Jin look down, but she kept her gaze facing forward. He noticed, and placed a hesitant hand on the crown of Fuu's head.

"We'll find him," he said.

"Yeah and kick his ass until he lifts this damned curse"

Mugen cupped his hands behind his head and took up position to the right of the girl, grinning to himself as if imagining his blade slicing into the demons' flesh. Jin stayed to Fuu's left. She couldn't see his eyes from beneath the shade of the hat he'd made, but his stance and pace seemed to express the same sentiment. They had inadvertently moved her to the middle of their group and she smiled a bit to herself. As they walked she stretched out a bit herself, happy and comforted between the protection of her two ronin pillars.


	3. Chapter 3: Mockingjays

The air that morning was clear and bright. Every leaf and blade of grass shone with tiny jewels of rain that glinted in the dawning light, and steam curled up from ponds along the way as the trio passed. A swirling summer breeze made the canopy above them chime and sing with the promise of a beautiful day ahead. Fuu inhaled deeply and spread her arms wide, letting the wind billow playfully through the wide sleeves of her kimono. Smiling, she watched as Momo leaped from beneath its' layers to sail happily from branch to branch on the currents, making contented "chii" noises as it went.

"Ahhh, the waitress breathed, "Now if we only got weather like this all the time we would have found my father ages ago." Mugen ignored her, but craned his head up to the sky and closed his eyes, unable to help but enjoy the feeling of the wind fingering its' way through his bushy mane. From here, he could smell the scent of the ocean rolling off the shore to the east and permeating its' way even this deep into the forest. He frowned suddenly. The smell of salt water brought him unwillingly back to his island home of Ryukyu and all the memories that came with it. Back then, he lived on the sea, where the spray of the waves and the toil of men were all he knew. He had not experienced any other smells other than that of the ocean.

Fuu had changed that.

Since their first meeting, mountain air, hot, freshly cooked food and even recently upturned fields began to dominate his senses as he abandoned the shore, and the smell of the ocean gradually faded from his consciousness. But here it was again, making his stomach churn with something other than hunger. Clawed fingers unconsciously moved to his wrists, rubbing gently over the blue bars tattooed there. "Look!" Fuu shrilled, bringing the man up out of his unpleasant reverie, "There's a town, hey, now maybe we can get something to eat!" All three stomachs rang out in a concise agreement. "But wait, how are we going to pay?" They looked down at their ragged clothes, torn and soaked with dried blood and doubted highly there was anything left in their much abused pockets.

Fuu's kimono yielded nothing but sand and Jin didn't have pockets to begin with. The pack he had been carrying had been left behind on the other shoreline, so that left Mugen, who was trailed lazily behind them. They stopped walking long enough to corner the vagrant. "Alright Mugen, what have you got?" He grinned smugly

"I don't know what you're talking about," he leered, "alls I have is this giant sack of loot and you must be insane if you think I'm going to-" Fuu let out an exasperated sigh, "UgH, Mugen we don't have time for this, if we don't find some money soon, we're all going to die for real this time." But to her amazement, he actually did pull out from beneath his shirt a modestly sized tattered sack that jangled promisingly as he shook it. Fuu's eyes grew wide, and a line of drool began to run down one corner of her mouth as her brain worked out just how much food a sack of that size would buy them, and it was a lot. She was so happy she considered briefly hugging the man, but something tugged at the back of her mind unpleasantly.

"Hey, wait!" she suddenly realized, "Mugen where the heck did you find that pouch?"

He smirked down at her, fending off her feeble attempts to grab the bag easily with his height. "I found it lying on the side of the road while we were walking, see? Some poor chumps going to be combing the whole forest for this, while we'll be able to eat like kings for a couple of days." As Fuu tried in vain to pull the strap holding up his sword down, in order to bring him closer to herself, Jin took a step towards Mugen and sniffed the air delicately.

"You're lying." He stated, "You found that in that fisherman's shed, didn't you?"

The two of them stopped suddenly to look at the pale ronin. He eyed them both from beneath the slats of his sedge hat. "I can smell the rotting fish on the fabric from here, the same stench we endured at that shack last night." Amazement held them in place for a moment. Mugen seemed to notice something for the first time. He looked down at the young girl, shoved the pouch into her tiny hands, and took off sprinting in the opposite kept going for a few yards before turning on his heel suddenly and planting his feet in the middle of the road, taking in a deep breath. A few seconds passed.

"Holy shit, you're right, I can smell the damn thing like it was next to me!" He exclaimed.

Where Fuu stood she looked down at the pouch. She brought it to her nose and sniffed it experimentally, and sure enough, the faint scent of fish wafted off the scratchy cloth. "Hey Jin," she exclaimed, "this smell is barely there, how you could possibly tell from way over there?" He looked at her quizzically, "Rather pungent isn't it?"

"Yea and you're no peach yourself," hollered Mugen, still planted at his spot yards away. She glared at him before covertly checked herself. He was right, she reeked of fish and sweat, but not nearly bad enough to merit a reaction from that far away. From this distance the morning rays of light had penetrated through the canopy and came down in shafts to dapple the dusty road. A single beam of light rested on Mugens' face and accented the bumps that protruded from beneath his bandana. An unpleasant flashback started up in her mind of when she first saw those horns and it reminded her that she was no longer dealing with humans. At the thought her heart quickened its' pace slightly, but also brought with it a theory. She turned and faced her two demon bodyguards. "Time to do a little experiment," Fuu thought.

"Mugen, close your eyes." She told him.

"Eh? Why th' hell would I do that?"

She groaned. "Ugh, just do it, you too Jin."

While they both had turned from her and closed their eyes, she snuck as quietly as she could to a gnarled old tree on the side of the road and stashed the pouch beneath an upturned roots. Since the bag was about the same color as the grass, even she had to look briefly to spot it again amongst the foliage. She tiptoed back to where she had stood. "Ok," she called, "Now where's the bag?" They both turned around and pointed at the same time and Fuu struggled comprehend as both sets of clawed fingers zeroed in on the base of the tree where she'd hidden it. "Just as I thought!" Fuu exclaimed, "all right, how'd you two know where I hid it?"

"We can-," Mugen started, slightly confused

"Smell it?" Jin finished.

"Exactly," Fuu said, "Your appearance apparently wasn't the only thing that changed that night, I think you sense of smell and possibly your other senses got boosted as well!" Mugen scratched his stubbly chin gingerly, "So that's why you were so loud..."

They didn't have time to reflect on what exactly that meant, though, because off in the distance rang out the chime of a meal bell, reminding the trio why exactly they were risking their tails *literally* going into public in the first place. With the help of their newfound wealth, the three decided *Fuu rather guiltily* to believe the vagrants' tale, and head in the direction of the bell, stomachs growling inhumanly in anticipation. The road ahead peaked out into a hill that overlooked a small trading village, surrounded on three sides by dense forest, and a makeshift flood wall around the fourth.

The surrounding area lining the village gates had been cleared of underbrush, and an array of portable pavilions dotted the grass, filling the air with the most wonderful scents Fuu or any of them had smelled in months. "Ahhh, Fuu drooled, "I'm going to eat until I collapse." Jin offered a noise of agreement. Starting again a bit more hastily, Fuu was the first to realize the space behind them Mugen had previously occupied was now vacant. A slight breeze still lingered in his wake and the two of them followed it down the hill in enough time to see the vagrant clear the treeline and head straight for the closest sake stand, tail wagging freely in anticipation.

Fuu had never seen Jin move so fast as when he ran to tackle Mugen into a bush.

A few scratches and a stern reminder later, the three of them were on their way again, zeroing in on a smaller, less populated stand lodged in between two larger stalls which appeared to be closed. There was a cluster of tables and chairs set up outside and an attendant stationed outside the door, picking his nails and looking bored. Fuu couldn't contain herself, she started off in a gallop, already shouting her order and nearly bowling the poor man over in excitement. As flustered as he was, he peeled himself off the drooling girl and offered her a menu as tactfully as he was able.

"Just one, today?" he managed through gritted teeth.

"Oh no," she beamed and gestured to her boys behind her, "We're all together." The waiter looked at her, then to the area beyond her, slightly confused. "Who else?" He asked. She looked at him impatiently and jabbed a polished finger at Mugen. "Those two," she said. He stared at her.

"Look pal we're really hungry and really tired, so are you going to seat us or what?" she barked, but immediately regretted it. She wasn't usually this short with people, especially since she had formerly been a server herself, but her stomach had gotten the best of her.

The waiter looked down at the girl with disdain, and glanced a second time over her shoulder. The scraggly patch of grass to which she was gesturing was empty save a small group of leathery farmers huddled around a nearby table. They were watching the scene too, apparently, and shook their heads at him, not wanting to be grouped in with her. The waiter was about to drive the obviously deluded child away when he spotted the promising looking pouch clutched tight in her tiny hands. It jangled like a song to him, and suddenly he decided he liked this girl more than he thought. "I'll clear a table for three, "he said cheerfully, "let me know when the other two arrive, please." and began to lead the girl inside with a flourish of his hand.

If there's one thing Mugen hated more than anything, it was being ignored. People in the past who had snubbed or acted like they were better than him eventually developed the unfortunate habit of sprouting weaponry from various organs. This chump was about to understand that history first hand. The pirate stormed past his tiny companion and rammed the speechless waiter up against the side of the stall, elbow lodged in his throat.

"Hey pal, you sure wanna piss me off today, don'tya? You work at a dumpy fuckin eel stand, so I wouldn't be ignoring us like you're better if I was you."

The poor mans' eyes bugged out of his sockets as he fell back, and any words he could have said were crushed beneath the force of the pirates' temper. From behind, the group of observing farmers had knocked over the rice pot they had been sharing and stood motionless. Their slack jawed gaze traveled from the gasping waiter to Fuu, then back to the waiter. "Stop it Mugen! I'm hungry too, but you don't need to kill em!" Fuu ran over and tried to pull him off his prey, who was in the process of turning white and passing out cold. With a feral growl, Mugen retracted his arm and stormed inside the stall, pulling out a chair and seating himself. Fuu and Jin were about to follow him in when one of the farmers stepped forward, leveling his rattling rice scythe at the young girl. "W-WITCH!" he sputtered, brandishing his weapon shakily.

Fuu turned around.

"Hey, I mean, he was rough with the guy, but I didn't-"

"Enough!" another farmer yowled, pointing his metal chopsticks at her, "we haven't done nothing to harm you, leave us in peace!"

The pink clad waitress just stared at them, "What are you talking about?"

A voice in the back of the pack piped up. "We saw you throw that man up against that wall without even touching him, you much be an evil spirit out for revenge!" A collective shout of agreement rippled feverously through the group. "Now leave us in peace, you raggedy hag, or we'll poke you full of holes!"

Starting to get worried, Fuu instinctively took up a defensive position behind the slender folds of Jin's back. "now wait a minute-" she cried.

"Yeah you freak, get out of here!"

"Oh come on now, that's just rude"

Poised behind Jin, Fuu was about ready to make a break for it when the farmer with the scythe started towards the two, weapon raised ready to strike. Its' curve hadn't even began it's decent before Jin's katana had sliced the handle cleanly into three separate pieces, effectively stopping the man in his tracks. For added effect, he raised the tip of the blade to very delicately rest just below the mans' chin. He stiffened when he felt it and slowly dropped to his knees. "Oh please miss, no. We- we were only teasing, right? Weren't we, guys?" He stammered, bobbing his head as best he could to motion to the group behind him. Five or six balding heads shook in terrified unison. "Now howsabout being a nice spirit and lowering your little mind sword for me.." Fuu stepped out from behind Jin boiling over with frustration. "Ok it's not funny anymore! this game that you're playing, acting like my friends aren't there, I used to do that when I was four, real mature of you."The farmers just stared at her like she was crazy. "I mean, out of all the stupid jokes, this is the dumbest, did you get the waiter in on it to-"

"He can't see me," Jin murmured.

"Huh?"

He lowered his katana, and slowly waved a hand in front of the kneeling mans face. When he didn't react, a smack to the cheek sent him reeling back into his group. He yelped and grabbed his cheek, eyes searching wildly for the source of the strike. As a final confirmation, Jin unsheathed both swords and proceeded to execute a series of moves so frightening and blindingly fast Fuu had a hard time keeping up. He ended with his katana pointed an inch away from one of the farmer foreheads, but they all had their gaze focused on Fuu, who sat and watched Jin in amazed silence. "No man here would see my blade coming at them and not even flinch, with the amount of power I just applied to that kata I would have easily beheaded the lot of them. They truly cannot see me."

With this new realization in mind, he delivered a swift kick to the rear of the formerly scythe bearing farmer and sent to whole pack wailing and yelping over the ridge of the hill. Fuu turned to her body guard, still trying to process what she had just learned.

"But Jin, if that's true, how can I see you?"

The ronin closed his eyes pensively. "I don't know," he sighed, "Perhaps it's because you were there that night we changed, somehow you were imbued with the power to see and hear us. The larger question," and he pointed the hilt of his sword, gesturing towards the peak of the hill, "is why _they_ can't see us."

A tremendous crash from inside the eel stand derailed any train of thought the two attempted to form on the subject, and a pale white cook covered in what looked like eel grease ran screaming from the front door, the decorated flaps hanging from the overhang catching on his hairless shining head, sticky from the grease. The two travelers made a path for him to come flailing past, and watched dumbfounded as he attempted to make his way towards town, streamers flapping in the wind. A moment later, and enraged Mugen emerged from the shop, a limp eel grasped in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other. "COME BACK HERE!" he howled, shaking the poor thing over his head, "who said you run?" He was about to start after the cook, but Jin grabbed the back of his jacket, halting him mid-step.

"Mugen," Fuu began, "We got to tell you something…"


End file.
